Is there ANYONE from eHam that's reading the crap being posted by RadioGuy2 and others on the articles page under "Thoughts on Mobile Antennas"?

And you wonder why many of us refer to eHam as the Ham's Jerry Springer Show.

You can have free discussion and discourse without this sort of nonsense taking over, but it does require that the eHam staff show a modicum of interest in what is being posted on the site and take _swift_ action when necessary.

73,

Lon - W3LKNaugatuck, Connecticut

Logged

A smoking section in a restaurant makes as much sense as a peeing section in a swimming pool.

"It would help if the eHam staff read what is posted on the site, instead of waiting for the users to complain. "

They can't keep up with all of that.

We should help out.

I think it would be great if eHam were user moderated some day... it's been discussed a bit in SiteTalk before... but the signal-to-noise ratio is greatly improved if every user gets a vote on whether or not a comment is useful, appropriate or just plain old flame bait.

It's just a long hard road to implement because you need to build it into the website backend and it's not going to be an easy task, but imagine if we all could just vote a particular comment down into oblivion.

It would be especially good because you could vote *my* comments down in a thread where I've just gone overly technical and off-topic without removing me or my posts from the site.

But it's completely democratic. Someone thinks my post is flamebait, they give me a low score, 10 other people think it's good, I get moderated up and my comments stay visible.

That's far more than necessary. All that's necessary is for the forums to be read on a daily basis and the profanity, personal attacks and obviously trolls, such as HAMINTRAINING and his alter egos deleted.

That requires NO change in forum software, simply a change in staff attitude and commitment and maybe a few more moderators.

73,

Lon - W3LKNaugatuck, Connecticut

Logged

A smoking section in a restaurant makes as much sense as a peeing section in a swimming pool.

"That's far more than necessary. All that's necessary is for the forums to be read on a daily basis and the profanity, personal attacks and obviously trolls, such as HAMINTRAINING and his alter egos deleted. "

But you and I already read the forums on a daily basis. If we had moderator power we'd have more than a "few more moderators" we'd have hundreds.

> I think it would be great if eHam were user moderated> some day... it's been discussed a bit in SiteTalk > before... but the signal-to-noise ratio is greatly > improved if every user gets a vote on whether or not a > comment is useful, appropriate or just plain old flame > bait.

I would love to do this - but as you say it is not easy.If I could just plug in the slashdot system that would be very cool but it is not that easy.

It would be surprizing if there was a thought like this one following among the e-ham staff--but there isn't, and it shows. Of course, it depends on the software, but I think the engine to do it is there.

The idea: Use 'search' to locate posts every few days by the obvious troublemakers and take action accordingly. Of course, doing so would depend on the willingness of the moderators to do it, and that seems to be something sadly lacking.

I say that because it isn't done at all, not even on subjects that are 'contentious'.

I have followed this thread with interest and, based on my own personal eHam experience, want to add a couple of comments.

Freedom of speech is a concept that needs to be tempered with respect and dignity. I have to heartily agree that no matter what kind of article is written for eHam, there are those who persist in just making uncalled for and totally rude comments. It’s not a matter of educational level or even the part of the country/world where they live. It is simply in their nature to delight in insulting others and making remarks that impugn them as individuals. Comments that include “you’re stupid”, “you didn’t read the manual”, “how did you get your license” and the like are completely without merit and have no place in any reasonable discourse. Why someone made a comment that was incorrect or didn’t quite hit the mark can have an almost infinite number of reasons. We are not all equal when it comes to wisdom, reasoning or applying what we think we know to be correct. Amateur radio is a hobby, not a necessity toward sustaining life.

Those who persist in being rude should be banned from posting comments. A statement can be corrected or clarified with another point of view in a polite and helpful manner without personally attacking the writer. The reasonable editing of comments would go a long way toward keeping others in line by clearly demonstrating the type of conduct that is consistent with good manners and good taste.

What is most interesting is that those who post articles are never those who criticize. They are always on the sidelines, anonymously sniping, deriding and insulting.

I used to support eHam with a subscription. After seeing the flames article after article I wrote both the webmaster and the moderator but received no replies. Nothing changed. The same posters were busy trying to disrupt the reasonable flow of the threads with insulting remarks. No one moderated. I finally wrote back and told eHam that until such time that they cleaned up those very poorly posted comments that I would no longer support them financially. Well, I’m not a subscriber right now because the situation continues to go on unchecked.

I firmly believe that anonymous postings have no place in the eHam forums. If someone has a point to make they need to identify themselves as the originator. If they feel strongly about something they should have to at least stand up and show themselves. If their point of view is contrary to that of someone else and emails are directed their way, well that is the risk you take for speaking your mind publicly and having to defend what you say and how you say it. Reasonable men can agree to disagree in a respectful and cordial manner.

The service that eHam renders is significant and I look forward to many of the services that it offers. I have to admit that it is the first place I check out each day when I log onto the internet. If they would take reasonable steps to weed out some of the offenders that insist on trying to ruin it for others, I would again subscribe in a heartbeat.

Freedom of speech is a concept that needs to be tempered with respect and dignity.

Thank you.Although I've been flamed (for using a login vs. callsign), mostly on QRZ, I never respond in kind; I ignore the flames and let the flamer just flame out.

Quote

I firmly believe that anonymous postings have no place in the eHam forums.

Point taken.Technically, as far as I can tell, login is required; if I hit the reply button without first loggin in, the forum presents a login page.

I believe you are probably referring to the use of a login in lieu of a traceable callsign, yes, I do that. And, yes, I've been severely reprimanded for that on QRZ.com. For anyone who wishes to admonish me, have at it. What I post is respectable and courteous, and mostly consist of questions because of my inexperience in ham radio.

For those who just must have an explanation as to why I use a login in lieu of a callsign, here it is. Whether this explanation is acceptable to those who would otherwise flame me, doesn't matter. Nonetheless, in order to be a decent and law abiding member of this forum and to participart constructively after I learn more, here's the reason I use a login.

Several years ago, I insulted an individual engaged in organized crime and cost him business by protecting others from what he was about to do. A chronology of what happened was published (with my consent) in a large west coast newspaper. Since then, I've gone to extraordinary measures to maintain online anonimity, as these people will track me down and cause me to become less healthy.

Thank you, K9OSC, for allowing me to jump into this message thread and post this; this seemed to be the most appropriate thread to post this in rather than starting anew. I will maintain a copy of your message, and refer to it often.

For the record, I prefer to use my real callsign, but I don't dare do so. Paranoid? You bet!

Copyright 2000-2016 eHam.net, LLC
eHam.net is a community web site for amateur (ham) radio operators around the world.
Contact the site with comments or questions.
WEBMASTER@EHAM.NETSite Privacy Statement